Crossover Covers: Adler

 

In 1902, nurse Jane Eyre returns from the Boer War and takes up rooms at Briony Lodge with Irene Adler. Soon, they must stop Ayesha, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, from destroying London. Along with various characters from the Holmes stories, also appearing are Estella Havisham (from Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations), Carmilla, Arthur Raffles, King Rudolf V of Ruritania, Queen Flavia, Rupert of Hentzau, Dr. Seward, the Demeter, Phileas Fogg, and Dr. Jekyll. Various anachronisms and reinterpretations of characters make this an AU. 

This crossover is one of over a thousand covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: Phileas Fogg and the Heart of Osra

 

Are you a Jules Verne fan?

Then you'll love this novella, Joshua M. Reynolds' second follow-up to Philip Jose Farmer's The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, in which Fogg has an adventure in the kingdom of Ruritania from Anthony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda, Rupert of Hentzau, and The Heart of Princess Osra!

For more information, including coverage of the other crossovers in the book, be sure to purchase a copy of my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3 when Meteor House publishes it! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover of the Week

Autumn 1928

MATTHEW HENSON AND THE ICE TEMPLE OF HARLEM

Matthew Henson must stop the would-be dictators of the Medusa Council from getting their hands on a meteor fragment he brought back from the Arctic. Henson’s friend Professor Henrik Ellsmere spent some time in a sanitarium called Dunwich. At the Cotton Club, a wealthy man flirts with a woman named Myra, who spent time in Asia, where she learned to speak Chinese. As he does this, Jimmie Dale, aka the Gray Seal, burgles his home. The Challenger’s Club, a club for explorers and hunters, has portraits of Allan Quatermain, Phileas Fogg, and Gertrude Bell. Henson disguises himself as a deliveryman for B. Jonas Freight.

Novel by Gary Phillips, Agora Books, 2020. Matthew Henson was a real person. The Medusa Council also appears in the Moonstone Books anthology Day of the Destroyers, edited by Phillips, as well as his collection Astonishing Heroes: Shades of Justice. Dunwich Sanitarium is likely located in the titular Massachusetts town from H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror.” Myra is a future agent of the shadowy vigilante. “B. Jonas” was the name on the door of the office where that pulp hero’s agents submitted reports to him. Perhaps he met Matthew Henson shortly before the 1929 events of The Living Shadow and heard from him about his battle against the Medusa Council, inspiring his own use of the B. Jonas cover. The Gray Seal is from Frank L. Packard’s novels. Allan Quatermain is from H. Rider Haggard’s books and stories. Phileas Fogg is from Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days. According to this novel, the Challenger’s Club was already in existence during the historical New York draft riots of 1863, so it was not named after Arthur Conan Doyle’s Professor Challenger, who was born in the same year.

This crossover writeup is one of hundreds included in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3! Much like the first two volumes, this one is an AUTHORIZED companion to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2 and will be published by Meteor House!

Crossover of the Week

Spring 1868-1876 
THY NAME IS SABBATH 
A failed murder sets in motion an eight-year-long series of events that leads to a bounty hunter adopting the alias of Major D. M. Sabbath. Appearing or mentioned are: Jimmy Ballantrae (aka Valentin L’Ollonaise); Bougival Junction; Otto Stejar; Colonel Heinrich Von Skimmel; the Black Indian (aka Christian Adam Sabbath); Red Galloway; the Crazy Indian; Isaiah; Brockston-Morton Railways; Arthur Gordon; Leroy Bailey; the Hellbender Regiment; Randall; Sheriff Priam Ramsey; Hatfield; Paolo di Marco and his nephew Gino; Philip “Hot Lead” Holden; Marty Heywood; Lieutenant Tervis; Colonel Jonas Leland; Giddy Burnett; Samson McDade; Jake Sartana (aka the Ace of Hearts); “that crazy Englishman who made a bet this year about traveling around the world in 80 days”; the Gentlemen of the Night; Fergus O’Breane; Jason McIntock; O’Breane’s successor in London; Redstone; Rocambole; William LeFrank Gordon, aka Bill Gordon and Frank Gordon; Baron Gustav Von Schulenberg; Enrique Claudin; the Chupin Detective Agency; Grandville Fuller; Lost Knob, Texas; Christian Adam Sabbath, Jr.; Arthur Gordon’s wife Xaviera; Skurlock; Mitchell Stangerson; Ignacz Djanko; the J. V. Harden Tobacco Company; Bryant’s Gap; Delilah L’Ollonaise; Madame Delphine; Hot Lead’s son; John Gordon; Snow Hill County; Judge Cutthroat; Bennet’s Raiders; Specs; Horst Drebber; the Council of Four; John Ferrier; Count Stanislaus Kowalski; Anton Niklas Petersen; San Miguel; the Drifter with Many Names; Chadwell; the Black Coats; Regina; Louie Gordon; Sgt. Boomerang Smith; Captain Younger; and Delta Valley, California. 
Story by Rick Lai in Rick Lai’s Major Sabbath, Ron Fortier, ed., Airship 27 Productions, 2016. Major D. M. Sabbath is a conflation of Colonel Douglas Mortimer from the movie For a Few Dollars More with the title character of the movies Sabata and Return of Sabata, both played by Lee Van Cleef. Jimmy Ballantrae is meant to be Ballantine from the movie Adiós, Sabata. Stejar and Colonel Skimmel are also from that film. The Black Indian is meant to be the title character of Adiós, Sabata, also known as Indio Black, and played by Yul Brynner. Bougival Junction is from the movie Frenchie King. Red Galloway is a combination of Lee Galloway, the actual protagonist of the inaccurately titled film Sartana in the Valley of Death, with Banjo from Sabata; William Berger played both roles. The Crazy Indian and Isaiah are El Indio and Prophet from For a Few Dollars More. Brockston-Morton Railways is a conflation of the Brockston railroad company from the movie The Big Gundown with the Morton railroad company from the film Once Upon a Time in the West. William LeFrank Gordon is a combination of William L. “Bill” Gordon from Robert E. Howard’s “The Dead Remember” with Frank from Once Upon a Time in the West. Baron Von Schulenberg is from The Big Gundown. Here, he is Colonel Skimmel’s cousin; both characters were played by Gérard Herter. Arthur Gordon is from Emile Gaboriau’s La Vie Infernale. The Chupin Detective Agency is also from Gaboriau’s works. Bailey is from the movie Hannie Caulder. Specs is another character from that film, Thomas Luther Price. The Hellbender Regiment and Colonel Jonas are from the movie The Hellbenders. Jonas’ surname of Leland implies a genealogical relationship to Jed Leland from Citizen Kane; Joseph Cotten played both characters. Randall is bounty hunter Josh Randall from the TV series Wanted: Dead or Alive. Sheriff Priam Ramsey is the father of the title character of the TV show Hec Ramsey. Samson McDade is Sam McDade from the Hec Ramsey episode “Scar Tissue.” Hatfield is from the movie Stagecoach. Paolo and Gino di Marco are from the Have Gun – Will Travel episode “The High Graders.” Delta Valley, California is where Paladin adopted his alias in the Have Gun – Will Travel episode “Genesis.” Philip “Hot Lead” Holden is meant to be “Hot Dead” Holden from the movie I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death. Sartana is a spaghetti western hero played by Gianni Garko, who also portrayed a virtually identical character called the Ace of Hearts in A Bullet for a Stranger. Grandville Fuller is from Light the Fuse...Sartana Is Coming. Marty Heywood is from the movie Wanted. Lieutenant Tervis is meant to be Clyde from Return of Sabata. Jason McIntock is related to Joe McIntock from the same film. In Return of Sabata, it is revealed Sabata left a woman at the altar in Redstone who later gave birth to his son; Delilah L’Ollonaise is meant to be that woman. Giddy Burnett (later Sheriff Gideon Burnett), Hot Lead’s son (Loco, played, like Hot Dead himself, by Klaus Kinski), John Gordon, Snow Hill County, Judge Cutthroat (Henry Pollicut), Regina, and Louie Gordon (Silence) are from the movie The Great Silence. “That crazy Englishman” is Phileas Fogg from Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days. The Gentlemen of the Night are from Paul Féval’s novel of the same name, as is Fergus O’Breane. The Black Coats are featured in a series of novels by Féval. O’Breane’s successor in London is Professor Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes’ archenemy. Stangerson, Drebber, the Council of Four, and John Ferrier are from Doyle and Watson’s first Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet. The J. V. Harden Tobacco Company is based on a reference to a tobacco millionaire named John Vincent Harden in the Holmes tale “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist.” Rocambole is the protagonist of a series of novels by Ponson du Terrail. Enrique Claudin is really Erik, the title character of Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera, using an alias. Erique Claudin was the Phantom’s real name in the 1943 film adaptation of the novel. Lost Knob, Texas is from Robert E. Howard’s “Graveyard Rats,” “Old Garfield’s Heart,” and “Wild Water.” Christian Adam Sabbath, Jr. is meant to be Chris Adams from the Magnificent Seven film series; he was played variously by Yul Brynner (The Magnificent Seven and Return of the Magnificent Seven), George Kennedy (Guns of the Magnificent Seven), and Lee Van Cleef (The Magnificent Seven Ride!) The implication of Arthur Gordon’s marriage to Xaviera LeFrank, the stage name of actress Francine Xavier, is that he is the grandfather of Robert E. Howard’s adventurer Francis X. Gordon, aka El Borak. Skurlock, Texas is from Howard’s “Black Wind Blowing.” Ignacz Djanko is the title character of the movies Django and Django Strikes Again. Bryant’s Gap is where a group of Texas Rangers, including Dan Reid, were massacred by Butch Cavendish’s gang; the sole survivor, Dan’s brother John Reid, adopted the guise of the Lone Ranger. Madame Delphine is Delphine Yant from Louis L’Amour’s The Proving Trail. In that novel, it is said that the Yant family also uses the aliases of Cabanus and L’Ollonaise. Bennet’s Raiders are from the movie Face to Face. Count Stanislaus Kowalski is really A. J. Raffles’ foe Count Corbucci from E. W. Hornung’s “The Fate of Faustina” and “The Last Laugh,” while Anton Niklas Petersen is in fact Guy Boothby’s villain Dr. Antonio Nikola. The names Kowalski and Petersen evoke Yodlaf Peterson and Sergei Kowalski, Franco Nero’s characters in the movies Compañeros and The Mercenary, respectively. San Miguel is a Mexican border town seen in four Eurowesterns: El Rojo, A Fistful of Dollars; Run, Man, Run, the sequel to The Big Gundown; and A Bullet for the General. The Drifter with Many Names is the Man with No Name from Sergio Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy.” His aliases are based on the names used for the character in each film: Joe Limbo (Joe in A Fistful of Dollars); Lefty (Manco in For a Few Dollars More); and Rubio (Blondie in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly). Major (formerly Captain) Chadwell, Sgt. Boomerang Smith (Sgt. Jeremiah Smith), and Captain (formerly Lt.) Cole Younger are from the movie Charge! (aka Those Dirty Dogs). 

This crossover is only one of hundreds covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, which will be published by the fine folks at Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's books Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover TV Series: The Middleman

Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Les McClaine's comic The Middleman features the title character and his sidekick Wendy Watson battling threats to the world for the Organization Too Secret to Know (O2TSK). There have been several Middlemen throughout history. In the story "The League of Professional Jealousy," Dr. Van Helsing and Jonathan Harker set out to destroy Dracula, only to find they have been beaten to the punch. Soon after, Phileas Fogg returns to the Reform Club after finishing his eighty-day trek around the world, only to find out his time has been beaten by the same person who stole Van Helsing’s thunder: the Middleman. Van Helsing enlists Nikolai Tesla to help him and Fogg get their revenge, which involves Van Helsing spreading rumors of a demonic hound in the moors of Devonshire. However, Tesla actually helps the Middleman outwit Van Helsing and Fogg. Learning there are now reports of a seemingly real "Hound of the Baskervilles" in Devonshire, the Middleman later sends a letter to Holmes and Watson telling them he has already solved the mystery, and he is off to the high seas, where a maniac has been ramming cargo ships with a submarine. This story is a parody, and Van Helsing and Fogg are both out of character. Additionally, the year is given as 1897, whereas in the CU Dracula took place in 1887, Around the World in Eighty Days in 1872, The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1888, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in 1866–1868. Therefore, I place the comics in an AU. However, the comic does have a TV adaptation with crossover references of its own, which fits much better into the CU. The O2TSK is also mentioned in The Librarians episode "The Librarians and the Apple of Discord."

In "The Sino-Mexican Revelation," the Middleman and Wendy visit Schlermie Beckerman Memorial Square and Alfred Necessiter Memorial Hospital. Beckerman and Necessiter are from the movie The Man with Two Brains. In "The Manicoid Teleportation Conundrum," the Middleman has a rendezvous with Wendy at Lyon Estates. Wendy discovers a bomb is hidden at Twin Pines Mall. Ida, the Middleman’s android assistant, says a headless murder victim lived at Eastwood Ravine Drive. Lyon Estates and Twin Pines Mall are from the film Back to the Future. Eastwood Ravine Drive is named after the Eastwood Ravine from Back to the Future Part III. In "The Ectoplasmic Panhellenic Investigation," Eleanor Draper’s honors include the Egon Spengler Memorial Award and the Ivo Shandor Medal. Both individuals are from the movie Ghostbusters. In "The Clotharian Contamination Protocol," a NASA employee is named Lethbridge-Stewart. A "Zygon-Rated" containment box appears. The Nakatomi Protocol expands the vents in Middleman HQ to human size, allowing the Middleman to crawl through them in case of an emergency. A Clotharian bomb has writing on it in Aurebesh. Lethbridge-Stewart is probably related to the CU counterpart of Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart from Doctor Who. The Zygons are an alien race also seen in Doctor Who. The Nakatomi Protocol appears to have been inspired by John McClane crawling through the vents of the Nakatomi Plaza building, as seen in the movie Die Hard. The Aurebesh language is from the Star Wars film series. In "The Palindrome Reversal Palindrome," the Middleman and Wendy investigate the theft of a Beryllium Sphere and an Oscillation Overthruster. A collection of stolen doll eyes is made of polydichloric euthimal. The Middleman has a phased polaron cannon in his weapons archive. Beryllium spheres are from the movie Galaxy Quest, while the Oscillation Overthruster is from the movie The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension. Polydichloric euthimal appears in the movies Outland, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and The Relic, based on Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s novel Relic. Outland must take place in an alternate future. The future seen in the Terminator movies is also an alternate timeline to the established future of the CU. The novel Relic has already been established as taking place in the CU, so the events of the movie must occur in an alternate reality as well. Phased polarons are from Star Trek.

Crossover Covers: Sherlock Holmes and the Zombie Problem

An alternate version of “The Final Problem” with Moriarty unleashing zombies upon England. Obviously an AU. Phileas Fogg and Passepartout also appear.

Crossover Cover: Hellboy: Oddest Jobs

As I've stated before, I take Hellboy crossovers on a case-by-case basis, as some fit easily into CU continuity, and some don't. This particular anthology of prose stories contains four stories with crossovers that do fit, in my opinion. In Brian Keene's "Salamander Blues," Hellboy encounters a group of mermen who are holding people hostage, and concludes the National Guard is not coming, and neither is the army or the FBI or Black Lodge or any of the other alphabet-soup agencies. Black Lodge is a covert occult organization that exists across Keene’s multiverse, including several works that have been incorporated into the Crossover Universe. In Barbara Hambly's "Repossession," set in the summer of 1962, Hellboy battles a demon hunter who is seeking notes left behind by Abdul Alhazred, author of the Necronomicon. In Gary A. Braunbeck's "In Cupboards and Bookshelves," Hellboy’s latest case brings him to Cedar Hill, Ohio, a town featured in a series of short stories, novellas, and novels by Braunbeck. "Feet of Sciron" by Rhys Hughes is particularly crossover-heavy. Hellboy recruits Foggy Dicks, a porn star that can generate ectoplasm, for a sex magic ritual in order to prevent the planet Nekrotzar from colliding with Earth, battling King Sciron in the process. Nekrotzar was drawn towards Earth by Marvin Carnacki, the current director of the Carnacki Institute, founded by his ancestor to rid the natural world of paranormal threats. Hellboy says most people think the original Carnacki was William Hope Hodgson’s fictional creation, just as many other authors pretended their subjects were fictional: Arthur Conan Doyle with Sherlock Holmes, Jules Verne with Phileas Fogg, H.G. Wells with Dr. Moreau, M.P. Shiel with Prince Zaleski, and Maurice Richardson with Engelbrecht. He also says Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien are at Mount Snaefell in Iceland. Foggy replies that he remembers Verne wrote a book about two explorers. Hellboy simply smiles in response. In Nekrotzar, the monster-hunting demon receives a riverboat ride from writer Philip José Farmer, who has been resurrected there after his death. Hellboy reveals to Foggy that billions of years ago Nekrotzar actually did collide with the Earth, which was merely a cloud of stardust then. Earth congealed around Nekrotzar, trapping Sciron’s palace in what would become the younger planet’s crust, forty miles under what is now Iceland. This Carnacki Insitute is clearly a separate group from the one seen in Simon R. Green’s Ghost Finders series. Engelbrecht is from Maurice Richardson’s book The Exploits of Engelbrecht. The subterranean world Sciron’s palace inhabits is the one seen in Jules Verne’s novel Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Philip José Farmer, of course, revealed the existence of the Wold Newton Family to the world, and wrote several chronicles of events in the CU. Farmer’s appearance here evokes his Riverworld novels, albeit as homage rather than a true crossover. This story must take place after Farmer’s passing in 2009, although it was published earlier than that.

Crossover Cover: Exiles of Kho

The priestess Lupoeth leads a band of her fellow Khokarsan exiles on a journey which results in the fulfillment of a prophecy she will found a great city. The god Sahhindar accompanies them, and says the city founded by Lupoeth and her companions will be very important to him. The foreword states the bulk of the story is derived from the recently discovered notebooks of Sir Beowulf William Clayton, the Oxford linguist who provided a partial translation of Phileas Fogg’s secret diary. The story has been reconstructed from Clayton’s translation of a tablet enigmatically designated “Holly 27-A.” Sahhindar refers to the star-shaped being from which the roots of the Tree of Kho emanate. Sahhindar and other members of Lupoeth’s group, including the priest Methquth, are captured by the K’goroshanaka tribe. Sahhindar later tells Lupoeth ingesting the nethkarna, the seed of the Tree, caused Methquth to experience visions of the future of Khokarsa. Exiles of Kho effectively serves as a prequel to Philip José Farmer’s Ancient Opar series, detailing how Lupoeth arrives at the site where she will build the city of Opar, from Edgar Rice Burroughs' novels. Sahhindar is the immortal, time-traveling John Gribardsun, as readers of Farmer’s Time’s Last Gift will recognize. Sir Beowulf William Clayton, a distant cousin of Gribardsun, is from Farmer’s The Other Log of Phileas Fogg. Holly is a reference to Ludwig Horace Holly from H. Rider Haggard’s novel She and its sequels. In She, Ayesha states her oracular powers only encompass events in Africa; her ability is derived from the same source as Methquth’s. According to Farmer, Ayesha’s native city, Kôr, was founded by Kohr, the son of Hadon of Opar. The star-shaped being is from Farmer’s translation and adaptation of J.-H. Rosny aîné’s Ironcastle. The K’goroshanakas are the ancestors of the Goura-Zannkas from Ironcastle.

Upcoming Crossovers: Phileas Fogg and the War of Shadows

Meteor House, which will be publishing my new volumes, has just made Phileas Fogg and the War of Shadows available for pre-order. This novella by Josh Reynolds is a sequel to Farmer's The Other Log of Phileas Fogg. I have a personal connection to this book. When you look at the credits page, you'll see two Continuity Editors listed. One is Win. The other is me. I won't spoil any plot details, but I will say that there will definitely be some crossovers in this one. It's an honor to be involved with this book, and I truly appreciate Win asking me to take part in it. He's a great friend!